ADAPTION Fleetway
by WhisperElmwood
Summary: It's been two years since Chaos, now Sonic, Amy and the team are growing up and realising theres a new threat to face. Very old fic.
1. Prologue

ADAPTION  
  
The girl dreamed.  
  
Not just any dream, a portentous dream. Dark and hidden were the visions. All she could see where shadows; shades of a possible future.  
  
She walked slowly through the shifting mists, unable to discern which image of the future went when, everything was too muddled.  
  
She couldn't see properly.  
  
She continued walking, on and on, endlessly, slowly.  
  
A feeling of sadness, loneliness, emptiness stole over her, so as she walked tears streamed down her cheeks, the drops mingling with the mist as she searched for a clear meaning to what she saw.  
  
Amy awoke in her own bed, in her own room in the team safe house.  
  
Sunlight failed to stream through her window, winter was truly setting in.  
  
Tears where streaming down her cheeks, her pillow was damp with them. She clutched the thin duvet to her chest in a tight fist and looked around her room.  
  
It made her calmer. Her room was in the chaotic mess of all teenagers in the cosmos who consider themselves too busy to tidy up after themselves, though perhaps Amy actually was.  
  
She sat up and stopped crying.  
  
After a few moments quiet reflection she got up, wrapping the duvet over her thin bed clothes and stepped to the window. Running a hand over her quills, trying to settle them after her restless sleep, she caught sight of Sonic in the yard.  
  
She had known he was there without thinking about it, but actually seeing him caught her breath and gave her a warm pleasant feeling.  
  
The blue nineteen year old was exercising.  
  
Amy knew instinctively that he had been unable to sleep, it was his restlessness that had caused her nightmare filled night. He had gotten up early again, to walk off his worry before anyone else woke up and noticed it.  
  
Amy sighed and leaned against the wall looking down at the young man she had loved for so long. She didn't truly know how he felt, she never used her abilities to pry where unwanted, plus she had decided long ago never to invade his mental privacy unless asked. She had decided that at about the same time Sonic pulled back from her, at the same time her empathic abilities had truly surfaced.  
  
She knew very well he now thought of her as slightly uncanny, and for many long nights she had tried to discern why and how she truly felt about his reaction.  
  
Though it hurt her to do so, she had responded in kind and pulled back, leaving him to come to his own conclusions.  
  
Turning away, Amy mentally shook herself and dropped the duvet on the bed, her thin shorts and vest revealing the body of a young woman. She had changed in the past two years, physically as well as mentally.  
  
No longer was Amy the dependant pretty little shopoholic, life had changed that, she had grown up almost as soon as her abilities surfaced. There was a new edge to the young woman that was unmistakable, she was stronger, more independent and more realistic. Though she still retained a little of her quirky nature, she was no longer an innocent, she had seen things in the minds of others that put a stop to that long ago.  
  
Physically, Amy had taken charge of her body, she was no long a useless member of the team, she could fight, hand to hand or with weapons of most kinds and she was now as competent with technology as Porker and Techno.  
  
She no longer felt herself to be a burden on the team, nor even Sonic himself.  
  
Amy dressed quickly in sweat pants and tight t-shirt, stuffed her feet into a pair of fluffy slippers and ran down the stairs to fix herself breakfast.  
  
Sonic was already there.  
  
She began untangling her quills with her fingers as he looked at her from where he was standing, giving her a critical look.  
  
"Morning Sonic" she smiled.  
  
"Amy"  
  
Still smiling, she flicked the kettle on.  
  
"Coffee?"  
  
"Sure" He sat down at the over large kitchen table and watched her quietly as she moved around the kitchen preparing her breakfast and making the coffee.  
  
She handed him his favourite mug still steaming and sat down opposite him with her own mug, nibbling on toast. They sat in silence for a few moments, Amy missing the way he was looking at her as she tried, ineffectually, to comb out her quills and hair with her fingers again.  
  
She looked up when she felt a vibration in the air, just in time to see Sonic grab his mug before gravity kicked in. He was silently holding a hair brush out to her.  
  
"Here"  
  
"Thanx."  
  
She started brushing her soft quills, once again missing the look in Sonics eyes. She glanced up again, "You're getting faster and faster these days Sonic" she said quietly, looking at him as she brushed.  
  
He shrugged dismissively, "Yeah, probably something to do with my aging."  
  
He finished his coffee, washed the mug, put it away and was sat down again before she'd blinked.  
  
He smiled hesitantly; Amy stopped brushing for a moment and returned the smile. Sonic stayed as he was for a moment longer, then fidgeted. Amy guessed he was once again getting impatient, as he so often did after spending more than a minute in one place.  
  
He stood up, moving away, "I'll catch ya later Amy."  
  
He lingered for a second more then was gone.  
  
Amy continued brushing her hair in contemplative silence until it was immaculate, every quill in place. She slowly ate her toast and finished her coffee after letting it cool.  
  
When she had finished, she washed up, listening to soft movements above her, Porker and Tekno were getting up, then she sat down again hands folded in her lap staring at the brush she had used.  
  
Slowly a tear slipped down her cheek unnoticed in the silence behind her eyes.  
  
There was a single blue hair caught in the bristles.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------  
  
HooHa oo;  
  
People may be able to tell by now that this is a Fleetway fanfic ^^; As I'm a Brit, this shouldn't be too surprising.  
  
Oh, don't worry btw, the whole story isn't like this o0 Just the prologue ^^;  
  
Whisper x 


	2. Chapter 01

ADAPTION chapter one  
  
Tails looked around in panic, Sonic was as busy as hell, Porker obviously wasn't anywhere near and Tekno was out of it, the only person he could see who could help was Amy, and she also looked busy.  
  
He made a gut choice and screamed for help from the one he thought best for the job.  
  
"AMY! I need your help! Quick!"  
  
As he yelled he caught a glimpse of light on metal and flesh ahead of him. He turned and ran, unable to fly as his left tail had been broken.  
  
A moment later there was a brief explosion of pain and then nothing.  
  
Amy looked up as she heard Tails scream for her.  
  
Reacting faster than onlookers would have thought; she finished off the android that had attacked her and picked up the small child it had been trying to carry off when she'd surprised it. In less than a second she'd pinpointed Tails' exact location and was running in his direction, the girl curled up in her arms, crossbow slapping her thigh as she ran.  
  
"Thank you Amy"  
  
Amy smiled as the girl whispered in her ear and suddenly felt a longing creep over her. She shook it off, feeling this was absolutely the worst time to have that kind of longing and reached the clearing Tails' had been shouting from.  
  
As she took in the scene, she found her traitorous mind falling back again, picturing herself with a child of her own in her arms.  
  
She shook it off again and crouched, setting the girl on her feet, "I'm sorry, you're going to have to go the rest of the way alone, I'm needed here"  
  
The girl smiled bravely and nodded, "Keep low, don't let anyone see you, the village is only a little way from here now, ok?"  
  
The girl smiled again, hugged her and ran off in the right direction.  
  
When the girl was gone, Amy stood up again and looked around, with her mind as well as her eyes.  
  
Tails was just short of the edge of the clearing, lying on his front facing inward, his twelve year old body looking incredibly frail as the sun glinted off his fur. Checking him, she found he was ok, but he was unconscious.  
  
Something nagged at the back of her mind as she stepped into the clearing and raced to his side.  
  
As she knelt down to pick him up she saw movement to her left.  
  
She had time to mentally scream for help before it was upon her.  
  
Sonic heard Tails yell for help, but at the time he was caught up with too many androids, he was surrounded by a good twenty of them at least.  
  
Of course he was worried by the yell, but he couldn't get away from them. He glanced at Tekno, a few feet away, she was lying on her back, one arm flung outward, eyes closed, completely out of it. He had to protect her. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of pink heading for the direction Tails yell had come from, Amy.  
  
As he glanced back up again he found himself set upon by half the androids, the rest circled him.  
  
With but a moments thought, he destroyed about five of them with no trouble, the others with a lot. This new detail was stronger, more resilient.  
  
Soon there were only the ten circling him left standing, but he was tired, and his leg was hurting for some reason. He dismissed the pain and readied himself.  
  
Suddenly the circle broke off and disappeared. A second later he heard Amy's voice in his mind, screaming for help.  
  
Her voice cut off so suddenly he was left with a ringing in his ears.  
  
He didn't wait for anything, he new where she was, he'd seen where she was heading. He got there in time to see their worst fear holding the unconscious forms of Tails and Amy, then they were all gone in a muted, unimpressive flash.  
  
He didn't even say anything; just fell to his knees, a glassy look appearing in his eyes. "No."  
  
When Amy finally awoke, the first thing she did was keep her eyes closed, then she assessed he situation.  
  
She couldn't feel anything but a dull ache where half her right ear was missing, without even thinking about it, she knew she was blind in her right eye.  
  
From the lack of feeling she guessed she was underwater.  
  
That told her all she needed to know. She opened her eyes and found she was right. She was floating in the exact centre of an upright glass tube, the liquid was obviously some form of oxygen at body temperature so she could breathe without feeling, she knew if she was stuck in the tube for too long, she'd loose all feeling.  
  
She looked around, not caring that she had been stripped of all but her underwear that was a trivial matter compared to where she was.  
  
Without panicking, she assessed her surroundings.  
  
Looking to her right she saw another tube, identical to her own. Tails, still unconscious, was floating dead centre, looking for all the world as if he were corpse. Checking, she knew he wasn't.  
  
Looking around again, Amy took in their surroundings. Everything was a pristine white or stainless steel. There were computer screens dotted around, blinking lights, no wires showing anywhere and only one door.  
  
Which opened.  
  
Sonic was furious.  
  
Not only did he have a broken leg, but both Amy and Tails had been taken right from under his nose.  
  
Tekno was having a hard time keeping him still and in the ward while Porker consulted Kintobor.  
  
"For goodness sake Sonic!" Tekno, with a hand on his chest, slammed him down onto the bed.  
  
"If you're that frantic to rescue them, at least let me fix your leg!"  
  
Sonic folded his arms and fumed impatiently.  
  
"How could it happen?! I mean.Amy! She's one of the best!"  
  
Tekno didn't say anything, it was one of the only times she'd heard him praise Amy's abilities.  
  
He calmed down a bit and muttered something.  
  
"It's like Johnny all over again."  
  
Tekno silently worked on his leg, but she knew what he meant. Losing Johnny two years ago had been one hell of a blow, reality had hit home, finally, and he had quit for a time, leaving Amy to hold the fort.  
  
"I'm worried Tekno" he said quietly, not looking at her, "what if he turns them into.?"  
  
Like most, he couldn't say the words.  
  
Tekno kept working for a moment in silence, and then looked up at him.  
  
"Just let me finish with this and you'll be able to run again. Don't worry about them."  
  
She paused and smiled slightly, "I seriously doubt they'd be able to turn Amy, not with that mind of hers"  
  
Sonic lay back again, staring at the ceiling, "I certainly hope so Tekno." 


	3. Chapter 02

ADAPTION chapter two  
  
In the second the door opened, Amy knew what she would do.  
  
Her abilities didn't go so far as to give her any chance of fighting her way out, but they were enough to give Tails and herself the opportunity of keeping their minds when the process was started.  
  
She knew instinctively that there was no point in looking at the past and wishing things had been different, because they hadn't been, she was here, now, and she had to deal with the present. Part of that thinking led her to realise the advantage they'd have over Robotnik's successor if this process worked. Part of that thinking helped her realise there was absolutely no chance of rescue, even with his new speeds Sonic would never find them in time, he had no idea where they were, so she dismissed any such thoughts and stuck with her plan.  
  
Robotnik's successor was the first through the door.  
  
She glowered at the tall, mousy, arrogant man as he walked over to the tubes and stopped in front of her. He was followed in by at least ten others, every one of them wearing the uniform white lab coat, identical to his own.  
  
Dr Bowen, Amy hated him, nearly all Mobians hated this man. When Robotnik had been defeated once and for all, Dr Bowen had stepped into his place.  
  
At first no one had paid him any attention, but it soon transpired that this man was far worse than Robotnik had ever been. Dr Bowen didn't use force to get his plans to work, no, he used something far simpler.  
  
He made people like him, made them trust him, almost implicitly, this is what Sonic and the team had missed, they overlooked him, thought him unimportant.  
  
Next he asked people to work for him. He asked them.  
  
It was so simple it worked, and they had missed it.  
  
Within a few months of Robotnik's defeat, they had a new enemy.  
  
Dr Bowen lost all pretence of friendliness almost a year later, and then they had all seen who and what he was. Though, even now, there are those who agree with him, work with him, and Amy was staring furiously at ten of them.  
  
Dr Bowen grinned up at her as she watched his every move.  
  
"We all know who this young lady and her companion are"  
  
He turned and addressed the white coats; a smirk etched its way across his face.  
  
"Amy Rose Hedgehog and Miles 'Tails' Prowers. They believe themselves to be Mobius'. protectors."  
  
The coats laughed as one, all grinning and looking the tubes occupants in such a way that Amy was horrified.  
  
"Of course, we must thank them for ridding us of that meddlesome Robotnik, a most valiant effort on their part! They paved the way for our accent to leadership!"  
  
He grinned at Amy as the coats once again laughed and mockingly thanked her, a horrible gleam in their eyes.  
  
She kept her own eyes on Bowen as he looked at her. He turned away and moved toward the back of the room where a monitor screen and complicated looking keyboard took up most of the wall.  
  
"People, I bring you here today not just to witness two of our most favoured antagonists get turned, oh no! Something even more interesting is taking place today, a 'double whammy' as some may say!"  
  
He turned back and grinned at the coats triumphantly.  
  
"If you would all be so kind as to step this way and keep an eye or two on the screen, you will understand all"  
  
Amy craned to see what they were all looking at, but the excited crowd was milling around too much and there were too many of them, they blocked her view entirely. "This is wonderful Dr Bowen, are you sure it will work?"  
  
A female voice, Amy spotted her quite close to Dr Bowen himself; she was a young looking squirrel, pretty.  
  
"That, Dr Sampson, is what we are here to discover!" again Dr Bowen grinned, he appeared to be enjoying himself immensely.  
  
"Now, people, people!" he waved his arms slightly to regain their attention, "If you would just seat yourselves, I will start the procedure." Another grin as the coats took their seats, all neatly arranged in front of the tubes.  
  
He moved once more to the monitor and complicated keyboard and typed in a series of instructions, when he was done he stood next to Dr Sampson who was seated at the rear of the group. He placed a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"And now people, if you would please watch carefully."  
  
Amy jerked her head upward as she heard a small electrical noise above her. A tiny opening had appeared in the caps of the tubes.  
  
She stared at it for a moment and watched as something was dropped through. The tiny openings closed almost instantly, but she wasn't paying attention, she was staring at the object that had been dropped into her, it glinted green as it slowly sank toward her.  
  
It was an immaculately cut shard of the shattered master chaos emerald.  
  
Sonic was carefully walking around the ward, testing his broken leg.  
  
"Wow Tek', what'd you do to it?"  
  
Of course, walking to Sonic was a lot faster than a walk to Tekno, she stood in the centre of the ward watching him rush around the room, nothing more than a blue and black blur.  
  
"Just a new healing device I came up with, with you in mind."  
  
She smiled as he slowed down a little, actually paying attention to her.  
  
"It seems I was right about your rapid healing abilities. Because of your speed, your body was sure to have one for the amount of stress you put on it, plus all the lumps and bumps you receive."  
  
He slowed further.  
  
"You heal remarkably well on a normal basis, it was inevitable that I'd come up with this really."  
  
Sonic stopped walking entirely and looked at her.  
  
"You know, I actually understood that, its amasing." He grinned, hugged her thanks and ran down to Kintobors consultation room.  
  
It took him a few seconds as he was being careful with his still healing leg, but when he reached the room, he knew his leg was fine.  
  
As he stepped into the room he saw Kintobors expression, he was unpleasantly worried, Porker was typing frantically into the strange device they used for hacking into various computers around the world.  
  
"What's up guys? Know where they are yet?"  
  
Porker looked up, Kintobors worried expression reflected in his own.  
  
"Sonic! Uh."  
  
Porker tried his best, but Sonic saw the monitor screen and was gone in less than a second.  
  
"Damn!"  
  
The screen was tapped into the security cameras in the lab Amy and Tails were currently being held in. The words 'Milestone City Laboratory : room 303' were written on the screen in a bright flashing green font.  
  
"Porker, we should continue trying to hack in, we need to give Sonic time."  
  
Porker nodded, glancing at the screen were Amy was convulsing in pain, screaming for it to stop in complete silence on the ancient black and white camera.  
  
"He'll need it.Milestone's nearly eight hundred miles away."  
  
Amy's screaming could be heard five or six rooms away in the immaculate laboratory. The watching coats were fidgeting, uncomfortable, this certainly wasn't what they had been expecting. None of them looked at any of the others, instead their eyes roamed the room, stared at the notepads they had brought with them, or in the case of a few, watched Amy in horrified fascination.  
  
In her new world of pain, Amy was thankful to the world in general that twelve year old Tails was still unconscious and didn't have to go through this.  
  
After the emerald shards had been dropped into the tubes, Amy had started to feel a tingling sensation.  
  
Looking down she had seen a misty liquid pumping into the tube from a pipe near the base, it had quickly mixed with the liquid oxygen so she was breathing it in before she had any time to react.  
  
From that the tingling sensation had originated, as it worked its way round her system her limbs became almost numbed with the tingling, and it worked its way to her head. When it did, Amy truly believe it would explode and she found herself clutching at it tightly, trying to stop it.  
  
Then something had exploded, deep inside her, thrusting her chest forward, throwing her arms legs and head backward as if she had been shot from behind.  
  
That's when she had started screaming, as the pain started, as the emerald shard had been pulled toward her chest. It penetrated her body, forcing its way through skin, muscle and finally bone, until it was lodged in her breast bone, and from there, the pain radiated.  
  
Now, only minutes later, she could feel something under the pain.  
  
She was changing, from the inside and she knew that it was now that she had to shield their minds.  
  
She curled up in pain and reached for Tails mind. She painted a mental picture of a world where they were safe, where nothing could get through and pulled him into it with her.  
  
As she did so she could feel the nagging sensation of another, artificial mind trying to take over. But she knew she was safe, nothing could get through to them here, not even the programming.  
  
Sonic ran faster than ever before.  
  
He knew the way to Milestone City, he'd been there a hundred times before now, always to the labs, trying to destroy them and stop the sick experiments that went on there.  
  
It was usually a six hour non stop drive, or an hours run for him these days, but right now he knew he needed to break all the boundaries.  
  
He had a feeling he'd just broken the sound barrier, he was painfully aware of his damaged leg, and he'd only been running for a couple of minutes.  
  
He looked briefly at his wrist watch, a Tekno speciality, he'd only been running a minute!  
  
At eight hundred miles an hour?  
  
At this speed it would still take him an hour to get there, and he needed to be there within the next couple of minutes.  
  
He pushed himself harder, he needed to treble that speed at the very least.  
  
He pushed so hard that the bindings on his leg were left far behind him a moment later. He looked up to check where he was, and caught his breath. The world around him was different.  
  
He expected the world to be a blur, as it so often was when he was running, but it wasn't. The world around him was perfectly still, birds were hanging in mid air, as if hanging from wires, a pooka was hanging in mid air between two trees.  
  
He was moving so fast, time had slowed down around him.  
  
He took a mental note to tell Tekno about it, she'd probably have a fit of happiness at something like this to research.  
  
A moment later and he knew he was close, he was running faster than anything ever when he reached the laboratories and started searching for room 303.  
  
He could still hear screaming when he finally found the right room.  
  
The extra time he wasted trying to find the them killed him inside, it made him too late.  
  
Amy's and Tails' unconscious bodies hung limply in the exact centre of the tubes.  
  
If you looked closely, you could see differences. They had both changed slightly. The most obvious change was the emerald embedded in their chests, only half of it was showing.  
  
He couldn't stand it, he'd been too slow, he kept thinking of everything he should have done differently, from not wasting time talking to Techno, to simply running faster. He was looking at Amy with pain in his eyes when he noticed something else. The two young Mobians were wrong. They had stripes, you could only see them if you looked closely, Amy's where a darker pink, Tails a darker brown. Her tail was longer, as was his hair and they both had claws.  
  
Sonic glanced around and realised time was still standing still.  
  
The people in lab coats were in mid applause, some just starting to stand, all grinning. The only ones not moving where the two at the back, Dr Bowen himself and a young female squirrel. He had a look of rapture on his face, she of intense contemplation.  
  
Sonic moved up behind them and hid himself, then concentrated on letting time return.  
  
"It worked Dr Sampson" Bowen squeezed her shoulder slightly too hard, making her look up at him.  
  
"Y.yes Dr Bowen" she tried to move out of his grasp, but he held on tighter.  
  
"D.Dr Bowen, your, your hurting me."  
  
He looked down at her as if he hadn't noticed he was gripping her shoulder, smiled then let go.  
  
"Now people!" he shouted above the applause then waited for them to calm down.  
  
"I have one final thing to do, if you would be so kind" He grinned again and pressed a non-descript button on the panel next to him.  
  
The tubes drained leaving Amy and Tails standing half awake on the dais. The glass shook slightly then the front half of each lifted and flipped out and up.  
  
"Now" Bowen moved to the front of dais's and addressed his new creations.  
  
"Agents, awaken!"  
  
Their eyes opened and everyone saw what else had changed. Their eyes were blank and as green as the emerald embedded in their chests.  
  
Sonic had to get out of there, it was too much, they were lost to him right now, but Porker and Tekno.surely they could come up with something?  
  
He took one last look at them, his gaze lingering on Amy, then ran as fast as possible back to the team safe house.  
  
"Just had to check" Dr Bowen said with a smile. 


	4. Chapter 03

ADAPTION chapter three  
  
Tekno and Porker worried.  
  
Sonic wasn't rushing around in a frantic state as they expected him to in this situation.  
  
He just sat and stared out the window, hands clasped in his lap, unblinking, just staring intently. It was as if he wasn't Sonic anymore, just a mannequin with his face. Occasionally though, he'd mumble something, but they never caught what he said.  
  
"I think this is the final straw for him, I think he's finally broken."  
  
Tekno sat down and looked at her old friend. Porker looked up from the desktop computer he was working at, glancing at Sonic.  
  
"I wouldn't blame him if he gave up now. I don't think even he could stand fighting the two people he loves most in this world. I sure as hell couldn't."  
  
Tekno nodded, "I can't believe it happened to them Porker. Tails and Amy, they've been fighting at his side since the beginning, longer than any of us. why them?"  
  
Porker put a hand on her shoulder, "I don't know Tekno, but we have work to do now. We've managed to break the programming before, even in the cyborgs. We just need to find a way to help them, as only we know best."  
  
Tekno wiped her eyes, "Right. you get hacking, I'll get designing."  
  
She looked over at Sonic as she stood.  
  
"First I'll see to Sonic, he broke not only records on that run, but bones as well."  
  
As Tekno approached him Sonic took a breath, "I can still hear her screaming.I got there just in time to hear her stop screaming and pass out."  
  
He looked up at her imploringly, "What if they're both still screaming? Just in a place where no one can hear them? What if they've locked them away in there?"  
  
Tekno hesitatingly put a hand on his shoulder as he returned his gaze to the window. She realised then that he wasn't still at all, he was vibrating so fast that his bare skin nearly burned her.  
  
"Sonic" she said quietly "come with me, I'll have to sort you out." she paused "Porker and Kintobor are hacking Dr Bowen's files. They'll find what we need to get them back, don't worry"  
  
Sonic stood and went with her back to the ward.  
  
Soon Tekno had him placed in a dreamless therapeutic sleep.  
  
Dr Bowen stood in the darkened laboratory, typing a few additional notes up into the computers. Behind him, lit only by the glow of the monitor screens, Tails and Amy floated in their separate rejuvenation chambers, blank eyes staring out at him, seeing nothing.  
  
After a moment Bowen stopped typing and turned to face his latest creations. He reached up and placed an affectionate hand on Tails' glass.  
  
"Yesss." he muttered "Perfect, utterly perfect."  
  
He looked into Tails' eyes then looked at Amy's, for moment he simply stared, then he pressed a button and the glass emptied as before, the front shooting out and up.  
  
Amy blinked, "Amy, registration number oh four one six oh. Rejuvenation is not yet complete. What is your command Dr Bowen?"  
  
Amy's voice was almost dead, completely flat and emotionless as she spoke to her gaoler.  
  
"Step forward for inspection"  
  
Amy stepped gracefully out of the chamber and then stood facing Dr Bowen, hands clasped behind her back, military style.  
  
She was slightly shorter than Dr Bowen, so she was staring blankly at his chin as he looked down at her.  
  
She blinked once as he reached up and brushed her damp hair from her face, revealing the previously damaged eye.  
  
"Remarkable, before your transformation this eye was permanently damaged, inoperable. All you have now is a scar."  
  
He dropped his hand, as if realising for the first time what he was doing.  
  
"Why is this, agent?"  
  
Amy stood for moment in complete silence, Dr Bowen shifted, moving his eyes over her body, then back up again when she spoke.  
  
"Internal analysis suggests that the emerald shards merged with biological entities produce healing properties."  
  
Dr Bowen faced her again with an interested look in his eyes, "What other properties does this merging produce?"  
  
Once again Amy went silent.  
  
"Healing abilities are accelerated, maximum control of master emerald energy, increased intellectual capacity, increased psychic activity in my own case, maximum control of infused nano technology, increased speed, strength, agility and stamina. In agent oh six one five oh, increased flight capabilities."  
  
Dr Bowen listened intently then grinned.  
  
"Perfect."  
  
Much later that night, when even Dr Bowen had left, and the only light in the room was from a single light in the caps of each tube, Amy blinked.  
  
She slowly looked around, not moving an inch, pinpointing the cameras in the room.  
  
She closed her eyes again, and one after another, every one of them turned off. Then she opened her eyes again and turned to look at Tails. He was already looking at her.  
  
He put a hand on the side of the tube, palm towards her.  
  
She nodded once, closed her eyes for a moment, then stared at the controls for their chambers. The button Dr Bowen used to empty and open them, slowly pressed downwards.  
  
They were both ready for it, as the chambers emptied they squared there legs to take their weight. The fronts hissed slightly when they opened, surprisingly loud in the silence of the room.  
  
Then they both stepped out. Silently and gratefully, they hugged, relieved to finally be out of the restricting chambers.  
  
Tails looked around the room, and noted the fact that there was only one door.  
  
He turned a questioning look on Amy. She shrugged, 'I'm sorry, the room's shielded against any psychic activity. I can use it in here, or out there, but not from here into the hall.'  
  
She was talking directly to his mind, it was a strange sensation, for both of them, but extremely helpful. Tails sagged into one of the chairs, and Amy sat next to him.  
  
'We can't get out then' he thought, knowing she could hear him 'you can't even tell the others we're ok.'  
  
Amy visibly sagged, she looked around the room, thinking.  
  
'Maybe we don't have to.'  
  
Sonic slowly came to.  
  
He was comfortable, warm, and in some sort of muggy daze. It felt good.  
  
He wallowed in the happy feeling for a while, then slowly yesterday's events came back to him.  
  
He sat up and looked around.  
  
I was very early according to his watch, about three in the morning.  
  
He guessed that healing ability of his had eaten away the sleeping drugs quicker than Tekno had thought it would.  
  
Something was going on.  
  
He looked down to the end of the room, the door was open slightly, a faint electrical light was showing. Porker must still be up.  
  
He smiled grimly. Porker must still be trying to hack into Bowen's files. Sonic felt stupid suddenly, he realised that while Tekno and Porker had got straight to work, he'd broken down.  
  
He'd not only failed to rescue Tails and Amy, he'd reacted stupidly afterwards. That was going to change now though.  
  
He was going to do his best to help them, whatever Tekno and Porker were working on, he'd help them.  
  
He swung his legs off the bed, tried, and failed, to stand up.  
  
He sat on the floor for a moment, wondering just what the hell had happened, then Tekno came in, a suprised look on her face. When she caught sight of him she couldn't suppress a giggle.  
  
She stood and looked down at him as he glowered up at her.  
  
"Sorry Sonic, I should have told you, you fractured a few bones in both your legs, so I gave you an extra drug to make sure you didn't go running off anywhere before you were finished healing"  
  
She turned, "Porker, could you come and help please?"  
  
A few moments later they had man handled Sonic back into bed where he sat with his arms crossed looking rather unhappy.  
  
"Ok, I'm fine now. What are you two still doing up anyway?"  
  
Porker gave Tekno a worried glance, she nodded.  
  
"We've been trying to decipher Bowen's files. Kintobor and I managed to hack in, but they're encrypted, so we're still working on it." he paused and Tekno took over for him.  
  
"We still had one of the monitors tacked into the security cameras in the room. about an hour ago all the cameras turned themselves off."  
  
Porker watched Sonic, "We don't know what to make of it really. Nothing happened to them, they just switched off. We been watching all night, the only thing that's happened is Bowen let Amy out and spoke to her." He didn't mention the fact that Bowen had touched her, or the way Bowen had looked at her.  
  
"I want to see the tapes."  
  
A few minutes later Sonic was alone, they'd wheeled the monitor in so he needn't get up, the screen was split in four quarters, showing the images from all four cameras at once. He watched everything in fast forward, from Amy waking up, through the procedure, to the camera's switching off.  
  
When he was done, he hated Bowen even more than he thought he ever could. Then he noticed something.  
  
Just before the camera's turned off, Amy had blinked.  
  
He wound the tape back and put it in frame by frame play. There it was, unmistakable, she blinked, and not only that, but as he watched, her eyes were slowly roaming the room. Then she closed her eyes again, and one by one the camera's turned off, but not fast enough, Sonic saw Tails move slightly, in the last image from the last camera, Tails started turning his head toward Amy.  
  
Sonic whooped with joy and Porker and Tekno came rushing into the ward.  
  
"She's fine! They're both fine! Look!"  
  
He made them watch the tape again, slow mo, until they all three of them were sure of it. Amy and Tails were still them.  
  
Sonic couldn't help grinning as Tekno administered some more of the sleep drugs a few minutes later. 


	5. Chapter 04

ADAPTION chapter four  
  
Amy dreaded the morning to come, she and Tails had to let their bodies take over, let the programming take them.  
  
It was simple enough, all they did was retreat to the backs of their minds, pushing the programming forward, she had taught Tails how to do it during the night. But it was terrifying. Terrifying because they didn't know what Bowen was going to do with them when he returned.  
  
They were going to have to watch as Bowen made them do things, and the only escape they'd get from it was at night, when they were alone, unwatched.  
  
She floated discontentedly, attempting to sleep before they had to let their bodies take over. Soon, she slept.  
  
She was walking through the mists of time again.  
  
She recognised it, and this time she didn't let the emotional barrage get to her. Walking slowly she could now recognise parts of the visions. Herself screaming in pain obviously from the procedure, Sonic fighting the androids, Tails and herself floating in the rejuvenation tubes in the darkness of night.  
  
There were images she hadn't seen, but could guess, Sonic running through the laboratories, hiding behind Dr Bowen, watching as she and Tails were awoken, Techno and Porker watching the security cameras switch off, Sonic overjoyed at realising they were all right.  
  
Other images, though, began to crowd in on her.  
  
Sonic screaming for help, Tekno and Tails flying together, Porker, dear Porker, waking up in a damp cell, herself holding Sonic unconscious in her arms, Dr Bowen laughing manically, Dr Sampson curled up on the floor crying in tattered clothing, the images went on and on.  
  
There was one last image before she woke. She was cradled in Sonics embrace, smiling in a contented way.  
  
Amy awoke and looked quickly around to see what it was that had woken her. Tails frantically directed her gaze to the door, it was being unlocked.  
  
She nodded and they both closed their eyes, drifting backward into the deep shelter of their minds, letting the programming take over.  
  
Dr Bowen walked in, followed by Dr Sampson holding a folder an inch thick.  
  
He walked straight over to the rejuvenation tubes and looked up at his creations, a smile slithering its way across his lips.  
  
"They are perfect, are they not Dr Sampson?"  
  
Sampson had moved to a table a little way off and was putting the folder down when Bowen addressed her. She looked up, "Y-yes, Dr Bowen.perfect"  
  
Dr Bowen stepped back, still looking at the two recumbent Mobians then turned and walked to a cupboard, opening the door, he took out two uniforms. As he straightened them out, unfolding them and laying them together on the table, he addressed Sampson again.  
  
"Wake them up and let them out please Dr Sampson"  
  
Dr Sampson nodded sedately and pressed the button.  
  
The tubes drained, Amy and Tails programmed bodies taking their weight, then the fronts slid out and up. The two Mobians stepped gracefully out of their rejuvenation chambers and stood facing the Dr's with blank eyes, hands clasped behind their backs, military style.  
  
"Agents, come here"  
  
They both turned, in perfect synch and almost marched over to Dr Bowen, passing Dr Sampson who looked near terrified.  
  
Bowen showed them the uniforms he had taken from the cupboard.  
  
"These are your new uniforms, go dry off then change. Sampson, take them to the shower rooms if you would."  
  
Looking slightly panicky, she nodded and led them out of the room and down the hall. A moment later they were shown into a room, as white and sterile as the last. There were two cubicles at the end of the room, separated from the rest of the room by only a curtain. Dr Sampson nodded towards them and waited as they went and cleaned up, dried off and dressed.  
  
They looked completely different when they stepped back out into the room.  
  
Amy was wearing a tight leather corset style top with a split soft leather skirt. The numbers oh four one six oh were printed in a straight line down the right side of the skirt, next to the split.  
  
Tails was wearing a tight soft leather sleeveless top and leather trousers baggy at the ankles, the numbers oh six one five oh were printed in a line down the right hand side of his chest.  
  
Both were wearing slightly heavy leather boots and fingerless stretch gloves reaching just below their elbows.  
  
They stood 'at ease' and waited for Dr Sampson to instruct their next action.  
  
She sighed and shook her head sadly, "I can't believe what he's turned you two into.you were our last hope. of survival."  
  
She looked at them miserably for a moment, then stood straighter, "Follow me, Dr Bowen will wish to establish you're roles in our stronghold"  
  
Tekno sat back in her work chair, resting for a moment.  
  
She looked at the ceiling rubbing her neck. She'd been working all night; Porker had broken the encryption soon after they had put Sonic back to sleep, and ever since she had been working on designs to help Amy and Tails.  
  
They had broken the programming before, so she had a basic design to start from, but from what she and Porker had been able to tell, Amy and Tails were no ordinary cyborgs now.  
  
Dr Bowen's idea of merging a living being with a shard of the master emerald was ingenious, but it made it incredibly hard to find a way of removing any damaging results.  
  
At least there was some suspicion that they were ok, Sonic had seen to that, so she didn't have to find a way of wiping a complete programme from a drone, all she had to do was get rid of any conditioning that was going on. Even if Amy and Tails did still have their minds, there was likely to still be some programming, controlling their bodies when they didn't concentrate.  
  
"Or something along those lines anyway." she thought a little wearily.  
  
Tekno was missing her two friends a lot at the moment, Tails for his refreshing way of thinking about technical problems, and Amy for simply being Amy.  
  
Over the past few years the two girls had become fast friends, sharing many an adventure, travelling together, discovering new zones, sharing each others excitement over new things, even saving the world a few times in ways the boys would never have thought of.  
  
She smiled and closed her eyes a moment, remembering the time she'd discovered some alien technology during a fight on another planet. She'd been half excited about the discovery, half trying to figure out how to turn it off to stop it from destroying the whole island when Amy had simply shot it.  
  
Right about now Tails would have been making a light hearted joke, making mention of some memory or other, then he'd shout something out, having noticed something she'd missed herself.  
  
Tekno sighed and started getting back to work; pouring over the notes stolen from Bowen's computers, having Tails around right now would certainly be helpful.  
  
Dr Sampson sat and watched as Bowen fiddled with the controls of the new rejuvenation tanks. Earlier today, Bowen had sent Tails out to a nearby village to 'recruit' two new workers.  
  
She was now looking wretchedly at the two of them, floating in the tanks, emeralds embedded in their chests, blank eyes staring. She was nauseated by the very thought of what Bowen was doing to them, physically sickened, but she had to hide it, she had a job to do.  
  
It was strange though, she had noticed something about these two new ones that she wasn't going to mention to Bowen. They were. blanker somehow, in the eyes, than Tails and Amy had been. It was just a feeling, and probably a stupid one, but she was starting to think that maybe Bowen's experiment hadn't worked on the freedom fighters as well as it had on these two.  
  
It gave her hope, so she prayed Bowen wouldn't notice.  
  
"Sampson, come here please."  
  
She stood and moved to Bowen's side.  
  
"This," he pointed at a screen showing a complicated graph and measurements of various bodily outputs from the two Mobians, "these two have less energy flow than the first. Can you think why?"  
  
Dr Sampson looked at the screen and thought of what she had noticed.  
  
"I'm afraid I can't Dr, perhaps it has something to do with them being the first?"  
  
It was a stab in the dark, but he may believe it.  
  
Bowen looked thoughtful for a moment, staring up at the two Mobians.  
  
"Perhaps. I think I may make a few more to see what happens, you may be right and this energy depletion could simply be nothing more than who it was we used."  
  
He fell silent again and Sampson took a step back.  
  
"Yes," he was suddenly more animated "Take these two to get cleaned up, put in uniform and shown to their new quarters if you would."  
  
He pressed the button that released them, and Sampson watched as his two latest recruits stepped gracefully down from the dais.  
  
Sonic was in the front yard of the safe house with Porker, testing his legs, when the first reports came in from a small village near Milestone city.  
  
A new type of cyborg, which apparently looked very much like Tails, had attacked the outlying village and carried off two villagers, a young male squirrel of no more than 15 years and a twenty something mother of two.  
  
Porker and Sonic both were near furious. Bowen had taken Tails only two days before, and already he was using him in the field.  
  
"I can't believe it Sonic; the normal recuperation stage of the first and second wave cyborgs was a week, at least. His treatment of Tails, and possibly Amy, is unprecedented."  
  
Sonic nodded calmly, keeping his emotions to himself. Hearing that Tails was already being used in the kidnapping of innocents to further Bowens ranks was painful to say the least. Tails was such a happy go lucky personality, wouldn't hurt a fly without good reason, never happier than when fiddling with some mechanical contrivance, throwing jokes around in a witty banter that had often left him smiling for ages afterwards.  
  
That he had been reduced to this by Bowen. nothing more than a thrall to fulfil his needs.  
  
His hands clenched of their own accord. He wanted to kill this man like he hadn't wanted to kill anyone since Johnny's death.  
  
Porker helped him back to his own room and then left to tell Tekno about the report. "Don't worry Sonic, we'll figure it all out." he said as he closed the door.  
  
Dr Sampson quietly walked into the cyborgs quarters and looked at the ranks of tanks for the new emerald merged Borgs. Amy and Tails were in the rejuvenation tanks farthest from the door on the left, before them were ten new recruits, reaching from the end of the room towards the door, all created that day. Each one kidnapped by Tails from villages around the city.  
  
She looked at them sadly, shaking her head as she walked down the line, past still empty tanks on her left and right until she reached the first of the cyborgs on the left. A young girl cat, possibly no more than seventeen, floated, staring blankly at the empty tank opposite her.  
  
Sampson walked further along, looking at each of them in turn, looking for what she noticed in the first two. She found nothing. Each pair of eyes was a blank as the other, all staring out at the empty tank opposite them.  
  
When she reached Amy and Tails tanks, she stopped and looked at them both in turn, searching their eyes.  
  
There it was again, the feeling that they were more than what appeared, more than what Bowen professed them to be.  
  
She gave a startled gasp when Amy blinked and looked down at her.  
  
'Don't say anything Miss Sampson; just pretend to be reading our screens.'  
  
Sampson, breathing deeply to calm down, did as she was bid.  
  
'We heard what you said yesterday, about us being your last hope of survival, we'd like to know what it is you meant.'  
  
Sampson blinked, trying to figure out what was going on, were they tricking her? Was this one of Bowens plans?  
  
'It is nothing of the sort Sampson; we are as you have suspected, Bowens programming didn't work. We need your help, but we'd like to be able to trust you.' Sampson picked up the folder hanging from a chain on the side of Tails tank and pretended to read it, the font blurring as she looked at it.  
  
Amy had heard her thoughts. that meant she didn't have to speak aloud.  
  
'You can trust me' she thought desperately 'I'm part of the underground movement pitted against Dr Bowen and his experiments, surely you know of us?'  
  
She jumped as the cameras around the room clicked off one by one and watched as the other recruits all closed their eyes. She dropped the folder, startled, when both Tails and Amy's tanks emptied and opened.  
  
They both stepped down and looked at her, relief in their eyes, but not on their faces.  
  
'Yes, we know of you.' 


	6. Chapter 05

ADAPTION chapter five  
  
"I wondered what it was I could sense. How the hell did Bowen find the shards when even I couldn't?"  
  
Tekno shook her head hopelessly at the view screen.  
  
"I'm sorry Knuckles, that's one of a great many things we haven't been able to figure out yet. Perhaps it's noted somewhere in one of the files Porker's been unable to hack into.?"  
  
Knuckles looked visibly annoyed; he'd been searching for the master emerald for over a year. In the search he'd found many things, some clues to his past, the other emeralds, a new friend, and now he'd found out Dr Bowen had it, he obviously wasn't happy.  
  
"I'm going to come over. It'll take couple of days, but I'm coming over. I want to be there if and when you go in there to rescue them" he paused "I want what's left of my emerald back."  
  
He nodded goodbye and switched his communicator off, leaving Tekno to tell Sonic and Porker that he was paying them a visit, probably with Rouge in tow.  
  
Tekno was about to turn away and find the others when the communications control bleeped at her again.  
  
Kintobor looked blank, raising his eyebrows, "No idea I'm afraid, could be anyone."  
  
Tekno shrugged and turned the screen back on again.  
  
"Is that Tekno?"  
  
She blinked, surprised, one of the doctors from Milestone city? The young squirrel that had spent the past few days helping Bowen.  
  
She frowned, "What do you want? And how the hell did you get this signal code?"  
  
The young doctor looked relieved, "Oh thank goodness, my names Melissa Sampson, and Amy gave me the signal code."  
  
Sonic wasn't too happy when he heard about Knuckles and Rouge paying them a visit. He'd never really gotten along with Rouge, however much Knuckles liked her.  
  
Melissa Sampson's news however, he took much better.  
  
"So, now we've got absolute proof that Tails and Amy are fine, and not only that, but the codes into Bowens more secretive files" Tekno had told them. Porker had instantly run off to get his portable computer, bringing it back to the kitchen where they were having the hasty meeting.  
  
The instant he'd sat back down again he'd started going through Bowen's files until he found the ones Melissa had told Tekno about.  
  
"Here, Melissa was telling us true." He showed them the page he'd just brought up, it was an incredibly detailed page of notes and instructions about the procedure of merging a living being with a shard of the master emerald. New pages had been added, each one a thorough account of each of the subjects experimented on so far.  
  
Sonic pointed at something, a strange expression on his face, "Porker. tell me that's not what I think it is?"  
  
Porker turned the computer back to himself and read through the page Sonic had pointed at.  
  
"My god, Sonic.it is. Amy and Tails weren't the first after all. they were simply the first to pull through, the first that went right."  
  
Sonic closed his eyes momentarily then looked at Porker and Tekno, "We have to find out who the first were, what he did with them."  
  
Tekno nodded as Porker stared at the page he'd just read,  
  
"There's no need Sonic, it says right in here what he did with them and where they are now," he read a little more, "They're all still alive, and still in Milestone."  
  
Dr Sampson looked around to make sure there was no one near and stepped into the cyborgs quarters, closing the door behind with a quiet click.  
  
She walked calmly down to the tanks holding Amy and Tails and looked up at them. She was always unnerved when in this room, over the past couple of days, the ranks of cyborgs had grown, the whole room was now full, forty cyborgs in all. Every one of them as blank as the other, staring out at each other, not moving unless ordered to, not speaking unless asked a question, mindlessly obeying all orders.  
  
She shuddered involuntarily and watched as each one of them closed their eyes and the camera's clicked off.  
  
Amy and Tails looked down at her, 'I've told them all I know, given them the codes for his files, everything, but I still don't know how to get the two of you out without Bowen noticing'  
  
Bowen would surely notice his first two captives were missing; they were his most prised creations, the two he used most in collecting new recruits and securing his hold on the city and the closest villages. The faces of the two former freedom fighters gave the people an extra scare it seemed, made them stay in line.  
  
Amy nodded, she understood, but Tails looked a little upset at the news, being the one most used, because he could fly, he had done some atrocious things over the past couple of days, kidnapping an old friend to be turned being one of the worst.  
  
'That's ok Melissa, you've done all you could, and we thank you for it, now all you have to do is make sure you don't get caught. Don't give Bowen any reason to suspect you in anything that happens'  
  
Melissa nodded and left them.  
  
Amy went back to relaxing and thinking over the problem of escape.  
  
Now there were so many of the new cyborgs, she and Tails could never leave; Bowen would send them out on a rampage. It would be terrible; Amy knew what their new bodies were capable of and to risk that much destruction was unthinkable.  
  
At least they had Melissa on their side though, the thought gave them some comfort, not a lot, but enough to let them sleep at night.  
  
When Melissa had told them who she was, they had known her instantly, mentally cursing themselves for not recognising her sooner. Melissa was an old friend, though much grown since they had last met. Two years ago, a sixteen year old Melissa had helped them out of the city, after Robotnik was defeated and Bowen started taking over.  
  
They hadn't seen her since, but obviously, she had made some new friends within the city, and secured herself inside Bowen's stronghold, doing what she could to sabotage experiments whenever it wouldn't be noticed for what it was.  
  
Amy sighed and closed her eyes, the only way she could think of escaping was by fighting their way out, but with next to forty emerald merged cyborgs in the way, and some of them friends, it wasn't a very promising escape plan.  
  
Hopefully, with all the new information, Tekno and Porker, even Sonic, could find a way to help them.  
  
Hopefully.  
  
A couple of days later, Knuckles and Rouge turned up, the former looking particularly annoyed.  
  
"Hey bud" Sonic and Knuckles clasped hands briefly and then Sonic led the two of them down to Tekno and Porkers work rooms.  
  
"We've broken into all of Bowen's files over the past day or two. A lot of questions have been answered, for example, how he managed to find the master emerald."  
  
Knuckles interest was peaked, "How did he manage it?"  
  
Sonic shrugged, "You'll have to ask Tekno, she understands it better than I do,"  
  
Rouge grinned at him when he said this; he glowered back at her, "Though she'll probably put it in layman's terms now you two are here, just to annoy me"  
  
Tekno and Porker were both looking at a computer screen when they came into the room; Knuckles dropped his bag onto the sofa near the door then joined them at the screen.  
  
"What can you tell me then Tek?"  
  
Tekno looked up and smiled a greeting, "Ah, hi Knuckles, Rouge,"  
  
She moved back to her own desk and screen, "Basically, Bowen already had a shard of the emerald, he found it right after the emerald was shattered. He used the shard to power his laboratories for a while, until he started taking over and found workers to power most of it. That's when he started to think of merging."  
  
She pointed at a diagram on the screen, it was the crude beginnings of what Amy and Tails had now become, "That's when he started making the cyborgs, remember? Well, he added something to them that no one ever noticed, not even me; they had a rudimentary system capable of tracking the energy the shards gave off."  
  
Knuckles looked irritated, "So that wasn't simply mindless destruction? They were searching out the shards."  
  
Tekno nodded.  
  
"I'm afraid so, but at least now we know how he collected them all. I'm sorry to say that he has got them all Knuckles, and to put it simply. he's used them all."  
  
Rouge and Knuckles glanced at each other; knuckles sighed and sat down on the sofa.  
  
Rouge gave him a sympathetic look, and asked the question for him, "What's he used them for?"  
  
Sonic answered, with a disgusted look on his face, "NeoBorgs."  
  
He nodded at their shocked looks and tried to explain, "Knuckles, you must remember the way we both react whenever one of those things comes near? We're both attuned to the chaos energy, we can both feel it, even use it to a certain extent, though I can't use it as well as you. We feel that way because they've got shards of the master emerald grafted to bits of them."  
  
Porker took his portable over to Knuckles and showed him the diagrams and cross sections, "Bowen has been trying to perfect the melding for nearly a year, and now he's finally done it. All those NeoBorgs, they were the ones that went wrong, the ones that survived the procedure but weren't perfect."  
  
Rouge looked over their shoulders at the screen, "Do you mean to say. Tails and Amy are.?"  
  
Porker nodded, "And not just them now, over the past few days Bowen has been sending them out to collect more 'recruits.' By now I estimate he should have at least fifty."  
  
Sonic leaned against the desk Porker had been using, arms folded in a frustrated manner, "So, does anyone else get what he's up to?"  
  
They looked at him blankly, "He's vying for world domination people. Can't you see that? He's created the perfect NeoBorg, finally, something he's been working at since the beginning."  
  
He stood up properly, "I don't know about you guys, but this scares me crapless. We have to find a way of stopping him before he pulls it off."  
  
Dr Sampson was dreaming fitfully, curled up in her bed in the house given her by Bowen for working for him. In her dreams she was lost, it was dark and she was surrounded by glowing green eyes, all staring at her blankly, without emotion.  
  
She screamed for help in her dream, crying uncontrollably, running, probably in circles, trying to find anyone or anything that could help her.  
  
She ran into something and bounced back, landing roughly on the hard ground. She looked up and saw that she had run into Amy Rose. Amy wasn't staring blankly though, she was looking down at her, eyes full of some emotion she couldn't place.  
  
'I'm sorry Melissa, I'm sorry, we couldn't help, I'm sorry Melissa, Melissa, I'm sorry!"  
  
She jerked awake and realised the nightmare was true; her bed was surrounded by glowing green eyes, all staring down at her.  
  
".no."  
  
One of them reached down and grabbed her by the arm, "You are to accompany us to Dr Bowen's laboratory Dr Sampson." 


	7. Chapter 06

ADAPTION chapter six  
  
From behind the eyes of her controlled body, Amy watched as Melissa was dragged into the room and thrown roughly at Dr Bowens feet.  
  
When she had first heard what was going to happen she had done her best to warn Melissa, but she had been asleep and all she had been able to do was apologise to her in her dreams.  
  
Suddenly Amy recognised the scene in front of her. Melissa had obviously put up a fight, her clothes were a tattered mess, and she was curled up on the ground at Bowens feet. Exactly as she had been in Amy's dream.  
  
Amy's mind reeled, trying to figure out if her dream had shown her what Bowen would do to Melissa. But there was nothing, she had seen only that glimpse, the warning hadn't been enough.  
  
Dr Sampson looked up from where she was crouched, every single one of the sixty new cyborgs was standing in the room behind Bowen, formed rank upon formed rank, Amy and Tails right at the front, directly behind him as his most prised possessions.  
  
"Well, Dr Sampson, what have you to say? Do you know why I have brought you before us?"  
  
Melissa clambered to her knees and looked around at the cyborgs, then shook her head, "Have I done something to displease you.?"  
  
She looked desperately at Tails and Amy standing behind Bowen, but knew there was going to be no help from them, they couldn't risk it, there were too many cyborgs now, it would be a massacre.  
  
Dr Bowen laughed down at her, "Displease me? Oh no my dear, you have done what I suspected you would do all along, and it gives me great pleasure!"  
  
He grabbed her by the top of her arm and pulled her to her feet. She desperately tried to keep herself covered by the scraps of clothing left on her body.  
  
He grinned and brought his face close to hers and whispered, "It gives me an absolutely infallible reason to make you join my ranks."  
  
Melissa Sampson struggled, but to no avail, she was shoved into one of the tanks used in the procedure.  
  
As the front slammed closed and locked she banged on the glass frantically,  
  
"Please sir! Tell me what I've done! I'll make it right!"  
  
Dr Bowen pressed the button to fill the tank and looked up at her, "Oh, I don't think you could make it right my dear. I mean, giving my codes to the freedom fighters.? That's an unforgivable atrocity."  
  
Melissa blinked and stepped back, leaning against the back wall of the tube, she didn't flinch as the liquid oxygen seeped in, engulfed her, didn't move as the emerald shard was dropped in to her, she kept her eyes on Amy, right up to the moment Bowen pressed that non descript button.  
  
She closed her eyes and didn't open them again until the procedure was over.  
  
"I've found where they're being kept Sonic. Says right here. Dungeons? There are dungeons under Milestone city?"  
  
Porker looked nonplussed for a moment until Rouge spoke up, "Yeah, sure, didn't you know Milestones built on one of the ancients old cities?" "How do you know that?"  
  
She rolled her eyes at him, "Explorer, historian, mean anything to you?"  
  
Knuckles looked over Porkers shoulder, "So, how do we get down there? Assuming that's the plan of course?"  
  
Porker typed in a command and flicked through some pages on the screen until a map came into view. He looked it over for a moment, muttered something, then typed another command. A new map came up, older than the first; he overlapped the two of them, so the lines from the old map showed on the new.  
  
"There" he looked pleased with himself, "It doesn't show on the new maps, but there's an old sewage opening. here."  
  
He pointed at a mark on the screen, Rouge looked at the maps, noting all the markings of both old and new, then poked the screen.  
  
"No, that's where we have to go in; the sewage opening is blocked now, and it's too close to the guard towers anyway."  
  
Porker and Knuckles looked at where she pointed.  
  
Grudgingly, Porker consented to the fact that her way was indeed the best way. It was near the edge of the city, no where near any guard towers, and relatively alone, most of the housing near it was empty. The only problem was going to be digging down to it, because a factory had been built over the entrance, of course, Sonic would likely make light work of it.  
  
"Guys!"  
  
They all looked up as Tekno called for them. She and Sonic had been in her work room, keeping an eye on the security cameras in the procedural room and Borgs quarters.  
  
They crowded round the screen and watched in silence as Dr Sampson was forced into the tank, when it was over Sonic turned to them all.  
  
"We have to get going as soon as possible; Bowen obviously knows that she helped us. He'll probably get all the information about us and the movement from her, so that means we have to act before he can do it."  
  
They nodded, "Tonight then?"  
  
In her tank, Amy seethed. She was about ready to break her own rules and just simply fight her way out.  
  
She had done her best to shield Melissa during the procedure, finding it a lot easier now that she had better control, so Melissa still had her own mind when she woke up, but despite that, Amy was still angry.  
  
'Stop worrying about it Amy' Tails thoughts reached her, even though he was as scared and worried as ever, he was keeping his calm and trusting in Sonic.  
  
'How could either of us have known Bowen would find out?'  
  
She felt Melissa's agreement from along the hall; she'd already been moved into her own tank in the cyborgs quarters, 'I'm ok now, and as you've thought yourself, these new bodies aren't so bad.'  
  
They all three of them glanced over at the door as it slowly started to open.  
  
By the time Dr Bowen had walked in they had let the programming take over them once more. He closed the door behind him and walked the short distance to Melissa's rejuvenation chamber.  
  
He looked up at her and smiled to himself.  
  
"Yes, you are much better this way I think."  
  
He leaned over and pressed the button that opened the chamber. It emptied and the front flipped up, she stepped down gracefully, her light fur glistening with the liquid oxygen, the new uniform dripping. She stood 'at ease' as he looked at her.  
  
He closed the chamber again and stepped back.  
  
"Miss Sampson, Agent six one seven oh, please tell me all you know of the freedom fighters whereabouts and what your part in their plans was."  
  
Melissa stayed silent for a moment then looked at him, "All memories of previous life were wiped when programming took over the body; I remember nothing before you woke me up in the rejuvenation chamber at oh six hundred hours this morning."  
  
Dr Bowen stood silent for a moment, some internal struggle showing plainly in his face as he clenched his teeth.  
  
He slapped her suddenly and then clenched his fists.  
  
Melissa looked at him, absolutely no trace of emotion showing in neither her eyes nor her face, the perfect drone.  
  
Bowen took a deep breath and calmed down, "I should have known this would happen, it's my own fault entirely."  
  
He looked her up and down, "I should have tortured the information out of you before I changed you. No matter. I'm sure Sonic and the others are planning some sort of rescue for their friends down there."  
  
He smiled nastily, "I'll just make sure that the first guard they meet. is you"  
  
He looked around the room at the other cyborgs, then back at Melissa. A nasty gleam glinted in hi eyes, "Actually.Agent, come with me."  
  
He opened the door, and a moment later they were gone.  
  
Sonic and Knuckles led the way, Tekno and Rouge bringing the rear.  
  
Porker, as was his want, was monitoring them from the safe house with Kintobor.  
  
It took them a while, but they found their way into the city with no trouble. Finding the right factory was more troublesome. They knew the general area in which the opening should be, but over the years, more and more factories had been built on top of it, so it was more like looking for a needle in a haystack than anything else.  
  
"This is getting ridiculous" Sonic muttered, "Is there no other way to find this thing?" Knuckles shrugged, but Tekno pressed something on her wrist communicator, "Porker, are we anywhere close to it? At all?"  
  
Porkers' voice came over the communicator, "Actually, yes, you're right over the tunnel, no where near the entrance, but you are over the tunnel."  
  
Sonic and Knuckles smirked at each other, "Good enough for us" Knuckles commented.  
  
Within moments they both started digging incredibly deep into the ground, until they broke through into the tunnel and landed in a heap on the damp moss and slime ridden floor.  
  
The two girls glanced at each other, spread their wings and glided down the hole, landing lightly near the boys, who were still grumbling and trying to clear the muck off themselves.  
  
Soon they were winding their way through the tunnel. It was dark, but Tekno had a small torch with her, so they could see well enough.  
  
After what felt likes hours of walking they found what Porker had told them to look for. A ladder leading straight up into the darkness. The only person who could tell how far up it went was Rouge, she clicked her tongue at it and then whistled.  
  
"Bloody hell people, that thing goes on nearly forever."  
  
Tekno nodded, she'd read the maps carefully before leaving, "We've been walking down a very gentle slope; we've been getting deeper underground without really noticing. This ladder leads to the dungeons directly underneath Bowens laboratories."  
  
"So lets get going then," Sonic impatiently started climbing the ladder, "Just try not to slip."  
  
"Don't worry about us, Tekno and I can definitely survive this fall, but should we catch you if you do?"  
  
Rouge gave Sonic an innocent look; he scowled and climbed further, ignoring her.  
  
Porker watched the four blue blips on the screen until they reached the ladder on the map. It looked as if they were standing still, but he knew they were climbing it now, so he decided to leave them for a moment and get a drink.  
  
While he was gone, Kintobor kept watch, keeping a metaphorical eye on the map. That was why he didn't notice until the last moment that he was being hacked.  
  
With a look of intense surprise on his holographic face, he shut down and vanished.  
  
The screen tacked into the security cameras switched off, and the map disappeared, to be replaced by Dr Bowens face.  
  
He looked incredibly pleased with himself and turned and said something to someone behind him, who vanished with a flash of light.  
  
Porker came back into the room with a glass of water, "How are they doing Kintobor? Sonic reached the top ye." he dropped the glass in surprise.  
  
A flash of light blinded him so he didn't see who it was that grabbed his arm.  
  
For a moment he struggled, then a female voice cut through his panicked thoughts, "Calm down Porker, it'll go better if you do. I'm really sorry about this by the way."  
  
Then the world spun around him and he knew no more. 


	8. Chapter 07

ADAPTION chapter seven  
  
Sonic muttered to himself about heights as he climbed. He looked over his shoulder; Knuckles was directly below him, then Tekno, then Rouge, "Hey, Rouge! Any idea how much farther we have to climb?"  
  
Rouge clicked her tongue again, "Not much, another twenty feet maybe."  
  
Sonic, mildly elated by the prospect of getting solid ground under his feet, started climbing a little faster.  
  
As he reached the top he slowed and looked carefully over the edge.  
  
Nothing, it was pitch dark up here, but then, it was pitch dark everywhere down here. He swung himself up over the edge and stood up. A moment later Knuckles climbed over the edge. They both leant down and gave Tekno a hand up, but Rouge refused it, she was an excellent climber anyway and needed no help.  
  
Tekno switched her flashlight on again and moved it slowly around the tunnel they were now standing in.  
  
They were all startled when the light passed over a chamber containing what looked like a sleeping figure.  
  
"What the.?"  
  
Knuckles moved over to it and looked in, taking the torch from Tekno.  
  
"Whoever he was. he's very dead."  
  
The others moved closer and agreed, on closer inspection the figure was definitely not sleeping. He was floating in the centre of the tank, perfectly preserved. Bits of wire were sticking out of him at odd angles; parts of him seemed to be made of metal. Those bits of him that were still flesh were emaciated, there was no muscle left on his body. The worst bit though was the wire trapped round his throat; it was wound so tightly that his head was nearly severed.  
  
Tekno shuddered, and turned away. The others followed after a moment's contemplation.  
  
There were more of them as they walked down the hall, on both left and right, all dead, some the same as the first, others simply having died of less visible means. All looked emaciated though, as if they had been in there a long time before they passed away, it gave the suspicion that those with wires wrapped round their throats had committed suicide. It was a chilling scene.  
  
After maybe two hours of walking Sonic started to say something, but the words died in his throat when he caught sight of something moving ahead of them.  
  
Whatever it was, it moved closer and stopped just outside the range of the torchlight. For a moment there was a hint of metal and flesh, then only shadows, and a rasping voice.  
  
"What are you doing here? Who are you?"  
  
Another voice joined it, "Why are you come?"  
  
There was movement all around them, as figures that had been invisible in the shadows slowly revealed themselves, though all stayed out of range of the torch.  
  
The freedom fighters were surrounded by low mutterings in a hundred different voices, young and old, male and female. With the muttering there was the faint sound of metal scraping on stone, the swish of what were probably wires, or tails. Once or twice there was a glint of emerald green.  
  
Knuckles and Sonic both felt the change in the air around them, both felt the unseen presence of the master emerald, and knew what it was they had found.  
  
Porker slowly opened his eyes. The room was dark, silent, the air old and musty. There was an oppressive feeling in the air that made him think of the many times he had been underground.  
  
He sat up and looked around. It was dark, but not so dark he couldn't make out where he was. The small room was obviously one of the dungeons from the old map; the walls were old limestone, grimy and damp, the floor covered in old rotting rushes and hay. In one corner there was a suspicion of manacles and a long heavy chain attached to the wall at one end.  
  
He was lying on an old wooden plank, hanging from the wall at a right angle, held up by thick chains, rusted with time, looking for all the world as if they would drop him any minute. He swung his legs over the end and stood up, swore as his head hit the low ceiling.  
  
Rubbing his head, and wishing he had gone with the others instead of giving into his fear and staying behind, he crouched and tried to figure out what the hell had gone wrong.  
  
Obviously Bowen had captured him, and he had used one of the NeoBorgs to do it. What puzzled him was the way she had apologised to him before she knocked him out. He thought for a moment and then wondered how the hell they had found the safe house as well.  
  
The only thing he could think of was that someone had told Bowen which of the files he was hacked into at the precise moment he'd left the room. And that was impossible, because only he and Tekno knew.  
  
He sighed and sat on the driest part of the damp floor he could find to puzzle it through. It was his way of ignoring the fear that was encroaching upon his very being.  
  
Dr Bowen looked up at Amy and Tails in their separate rejuvenation tanks. He had noticed the energy flow increase in their outputs and was wondering about it all the more. When he looked at Sampson's this morning he had become suspicious, her output was identical to theirs.  
  
He had missed something, and it irked him.  
  
Something different had happened to these three that hadn't happened to all the others, and he meant to find out what.  
  
He turned round and slammed open the door to the hall. There was no one around so he stalked down the hall and opened the door that led to below, he switched the light and carefully followed the stairs down. When he reached the bottom a few minutes later he turned right, grabbed a torch from an alcove and followed the hallway until he reached another doorway.  
  
He pulled out a key on a length of chain from his pocket, unlocked the door, stepped through and closed it behind him, locking it again he switched on the torch and followed a second set of stairs down then along a hall to the left until he saw a candle, burned almost to the base.  
  
The candle was lighting up an ancient oak doorway, giving some light through the tiny barred window. He looked inside, Porker was curled up in the damp floor, apparently asleep, using his rolled up jacket as a pillow.  
  
Bowen unlatched the doorway and opened it, stepping inside he kicked a small stone from the floor at Porker.  
  
"Wha.?"  
  
Porker sat up bleary eyed, saw Bowen and scooted backwards until he hit the wall. He stopped there and looked at Bowen in panic.  
  
"What do you want with me?"  
  
Bowen smiled down at him, lifting the torch to shine in his captives' eyes. Porker lifted a hand to block the light and blinked at him.  
  
"I just want to ask you a few questions my friend."  
  
"We have been here for so long now it feels like this is the only way we have ever lived."  
  
The freedom fighters had been taken to the dungeon homes of Bowens' failed experiments, it had taken a further half hour to reach them. Apparently, the instant they had reached the top of the ladder the NeoBorgs' had known, and had been following them, watching their every move. When they had gotten too close to the living area, that was when the Neo's had revealed themselves.  
  
"Why don't you escape? Leave this place? You could live anywhere on Mobius, you could go home, why stay here?"  
  
The Neo's all shook their heads sadly. Sonic and Knuckles had been taken to the leaders of the group, leaving Tekno and Rouge to talk with the remaining cyborgs.  
  
"You do not understand our plight. Even though Bowen has forsaken us, forced us to live down here like rats, we are still connected to him. The programming he forced on us may not be complete, but it holds us to him, his every word is our command, and he commanded that we stay here and do only as he says. Therefore we cannot leave."  
  
The girls looked at them in sympathy.  
  
"So that's why you still take part in the raids of villages around Mobius? Bowen still made use of you now and then?"  
  
The one who had explained it to them nodded and Rouge shook her head in sympathy. Tekno leaned forward, "May I.?"  
  
The same one nodded and held out his hand, it was made entirely of metal, as was his entire arm. Wiring was threaded through it here and there, crisscrossing over the metal muscles, serving as replacements for veins and arteries.  
  
Most of the NeoBorgs around them had at least one metal appendage, some were more metal than flesh, there were a very few who had escaped the rampaging nano technology.  
  
Tekno looked closely at his arm and turned the hand over, palm upwards. She was surprised when there was a glint of green in his palm. "Oh! The emerald shard.?"  
  
He nodded. "But. The emeralds in the new NeoBorgs are all embedded in the chest."  
  
"Yes, there are a few of the latest of our family that have it in the breast bone, but most of us the emerald was merged into a random part of the body. Back at the beginning of his experiments there was no order, no rhyme nor reason to the way he created us."  
  
Tekno and Rouge looked around at the NeoBorgs, every one of them moved aside a part of their clothing, a glove or an eye patch, revealing the emerald shard.  
  
"It's horrible, what he did to you all." Rouge said quietly, "How? How could someone do something that terrible.?"  
  
Sonic and Knuckles were given the same story by the leaders, in slightly more detail. Each one of them had been carried away by the first or second wave cyborgs almost a year ago, they had all been placed in glass chambers filled with a green liquid, gone through intense pain and woken up with emeralds embedded in parts of them, and those unfortunate enough, bits of their very bodies ravaged by the nano tech.  
  
Every one of them retained their memories, in whole or in part, they all knew who they were, had been before the experiments, but every one of them had to live through the horror of no longer controlling their bodies, a simple word from Bowen would send their minds into confusion, and they would come out of it with no memory of what they had done.  
  
Sonic had reeled when they first met these leaders, as the chief of them he recognised. It was the NeoBorg who had taken Amy and Tails only a week ago, Sonic remembered him perfectly, from the glowing green eyes, to the nano- ravaged arms.  
  
It had taken some time for him to calm down and listen, but Knuckles managed it by pointing out the fact that these people had no idea what he was on about, they remembered nothing of what they did when Bowen commanded them.  
  
"We believe that now he has perfected this experiment of his, he will send for us and have us killed, slaughtered like cattle."  
  
The other leader nodded, "He has no more need for us, we have become obsolete since he perfected the merging. The only reason he kept us in the first place was so we could collect more victims for his trials."  
  
The two freedom fighters nodded, "If there was any way we could help.?"  
  
Knuckles raised his eyebrows at them all.  
  
"No, the only way you could help us would be by killing Bowen and his underlings. We would never again have to listen to their voices, do as they command."  
  
Sonic gave Knuckles a look, "Well, to put it simply, that's one of the reasons we're down here. We're trying to find a way into the labs, to destroy them and kill Bowen" Knuckles frowned at him, there had been no mention before this of killing Bowen, as far as he had been concerned, finding the NeoBorgs was what they had come here to do. Sonic had been hiding the way he felt from them all, and that was unlike him to say the least, there was a quiet fury in his voice now that made Knuckles shiver.  
  
The NeoBorgs were all pleased at his words and decided amongst themselves a guide to take the team to the higher levels.  
  
"OUF!"  
  
Porker thudded against the far wall of a new room, higher up in the building, and slid down it until he was sat limply, leaning on it for support. His jacket was thrown at him; he didn't flinch when it landed on his up drawn knees.  
  
Through tear filled eyes he looked around, the room was a sterile white, floor to ceiling; the door was stainless steel and the only way in or out.  
  
Bowen had taken him up to the laboratories, waiting inside them were two other doctors, a shifty looking man and smart uptight woman.  
  
They'd strapped him to a chair and pumped him full of some drug that nearly knocked him out, made him lose all self-control. He had answered every question they asked, he'd been unable to stop. They now knew everything, from Melissa to Amy and Tails, to Sonic and the others in the dungeons below them.  
  
He rested his head on his knees and closed his eyes, gripping his jacket in tight fists.  
  
".I'm sorry." He whispered to the silent room.  
  
".sorry." 


	9. Chapter 08

ADAPTION chapter eight  
  
Amy opened her eyes when she heard the door slam open, then instantly lapsed back into her programmed brain.  
  
Up the hall she heard Bowen order Melissa out of her tank, and then he stalked down to Tails tank, ordered him out, and lastly, looked up at Amy and ordered her out.  
  
When they were all at the door, he ordered them to follow him.  
  
Flanked by two other doctors, a man and a woman, they were led to one of the laboratories. When she stepped into the room, it was all she could do to keep up the masquerade; she was overwhelmed by the power of the residue of fear. It took a moment to register, but she recognized the mind behind it.  
  
Porker. They'd had Porker in here, and he'd been terrified.  
  
Bowen ordered the three of them onto three chairs set in a row next to the far wall. If she could have, Amy would have reeled from the touch of the chair she sat in, it was the one Porker had been strapped to, and she could still feel him in it.  
  
As the doctors strapped their wrists and ankles to the chairs Amy realized Bowen knew about them, knew that they were never under his complete control. She knew that Porker had been the one to tell him, she realized this and she was filled with dread.  
  
Bowen looked at the three of them, undisguised fury in his eyes. He stepped up to Amy, stood a moment in silence, then slapped her.  
  
For a second or two, Amy didn't move, his slap had thrown her head to the side, her quills and hair were tumbled all over, no one could see her face, her eyes.  
  
She slowly turned back to face him and looked up at him, directly into his blue gray manic eyes with her own bright green ones and nearly growled as she said, "What do you want Bowen?"  
  
"Here, is only way up. Good luck to you."  
  
They watched, slightly surprised, as their guide simply vanished with that unimpressive flash that marked the teleportation available to all the NeoBorgs'.  
  
Sonic looked up. "It's another ladder. Why do they always have ladders in these places? Why not a staircase? Or a lift?"  
  
Rouge shook her head, "Just get climbing big boy."  
  
Sonic glowered at her again and did so.  
  
A few minutes later they had reached the top. There was nothing, not even light, up here. Rouge clicked her tongue as Tekno switched on her torch.  
  
"There's a door, over there" Rouge directed Teknos' light at it, "And that's it, everything else is just blank stone walls."  
  
Sonic opened it and went through, Knuckles close behind. There was a candle burning further down the hall, it was all they could see, everything else was as black as the hall they had just come out of.  
  
When they reached it they discovered it was only the stub of the candle, practically gone, definitely on its last few minutes. Rouge clicked her tongue again, "The hall goes on for a bit more, there're doors on either side, but this is the only one that's been opened."  
  
At that Sonic stepped inside, closely followed by Tekno with the torch.  
  
There was something on the floor, on the only patch of floor that was dryer than the rest.  
  
Porkers' communicator.  
  
Sonic picked it up in confusion, not understanding how it had gotten there. He looked at Tekno; she looked mildly panicked for a moment, then pressed a button on her own. It set Porkers' one beeping.  
  
"It's real then. Porker was here. That means Bowen's got him."  
  
Knuckles laid a hand on Sonics' shoulder, "Don't worry, we'll get him when we get the others. That's why we're here, remember? Rescue mission?"  
  
He tried out a smile, but it was forced, and looked it.  
  
Sonic nodded, thinking this was just one more reason to kill Bowen and have done with it.  
  
They set out again, Sonic clutching the communicator tightly in one fist.  
  
Rouge, clicking her tongue now and again, and Tekno with the torch, led the way. They found and followed some footprints, the ones on top leading out.  
  
Soon they had found the doorway that led straight into the hallway of the main laboratories.  
  
Bowen had left the door open, and it gave Amy the advantage she needed. She could feel Sonic and the others getting closer, and the instant they opened the door, she'd call to them.  
  
"I'd wondered why you three had different energy outputs than the others. I suppose now I know." He folded his arms and looked at the three of them. They had all stopped letting the programming control them, they were all now glaring at him, Tails' tails twitching like a cats'.  
  
"It actually isn't what you think Bowen." Amy raised her eyebrows at him, "There is a completely different reason for our energy outputs to be higher. Would you like to know?"  
  
Bowen gave her a furious look, obviously he did, but didn't want to admit that his assumption had been wrong.  
  
"It's because we're stronger, we have more control over the emeralds you merged us with."  
  
'Now' Amy thought as she felt Sonic open the door and step into the hall only a corridor away. 'SONIC!' She sent him the directions to the lab they were in.  
  
Bowen looked mildly interested, "How so?"  
  
Tails looked up at him, "Easy, we've still got our minds, we know what we're doing, we have the ability to learn and adapt to situations brought to us. In short, your mindless drones do as they're told and no more. We surpass them in every eventuality."  
  
Bowen looked mutinous for a moment. "Doctors, please do as I instructed in the briefing."  
  
Amy looked at the two doctors and they stopped in their movements. Melissa spoke to Bowen, "You know those increased abilities Amy told you about?"  
  
Bowen looked at her, she grinned, "You didn't completely understand. Amy was only a simple Empath before your procedure merged her mind and body with the energy of the Master Emerald. She's now a telepath and telekinetic as well, surprised?"  
  
The two doctors behind Bowen fell to their knees, clutching their heads, silent screams twisting their features.  
  
"Gods, where did you find these two Bowen? Their worse than you.their minds are black and twisted." Amy paused, "In fact. they're not even real. Damn you Bowen, these are early drones!"  
  
Sonic opened the door and stepped into the hall, looking around he noted it was completely deserted. He turned to tell the others and suddenly dropped to his knees, clutching his head.  
  
The others rushed through the door, Knuckles helping him back to his feet.  
  
"Owww."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Amy. she just told me where she is. I didn't realize she'd become so powerful." "Where are they?"  
  
Sonic waved a hand towards the right end on the hall, "But we have to get Porker first. She said she and the others can keep Bowen busy for a little longer."  
  
He shook his head and stood up straight.  
  
"This way."  
  
They followed him to the left end of the hall, round a corner and through a pair of swing doors to another almost identical hall. He carried on until they reached the end of that hall, next to a huge stainless steel door.  
  
"He's in here, but it's kinda unbreakable, and I really don't want to dig through and scare Porker any more than he already is."  
  
Tekno nodded and stepped up to the door, pulling out a complicated set of wires and something that looked like a credit card attached to a modified handheld computer.  
  
"Catch up yeah?"  
  
Sonic disappeared, leaving them to get Porker out.  
  
Melissa slammed her hands upwards, breaking the bonds holding her down, as she did the same with her ankles Tails and Amy followed suit. A moment later they were all free. Dr Bowen reeled backward a step or two.  
  
"Why did you not use this power before now?"  
  
Amy concentrated on him, "We talked about it, but decided I shouldn't, I'm still learning to control it you see, and I didn't want a death on my conscience, not even yours. Anyway, we thought if we stayed in your ranks a little longer, we may be able help people from the inside."  
  
"Amy, Tails!"  
  
Everyone turned and looked to where the shout had come from. Sonic was standing in the doorway, alone, unharmed and grinning from ear to ear. He came into the room at top speed and was suddenly standing between Tails and Amy, he grabbed Tails in a huge hug, almost picking him up off the floor.  
  
"Missed ya buddy"  
  
Tails grinned.  
  
Sonic turned to Amy about to hug her as well, but he never managed it. Bowen jumped at them, grabbing Sonic round the neck, twisting one of his arms up his back.  
  
"No!" Amy concentrated with all her might on killing Bowen, but nothing happened. Bowen continued to pull sonic backwards to a door across the room.  
  
"I really wouldn't Amy, anything you do to me is just bouncing off." Sonic had slumped in his arms the instant Amy tried to kill Bowen. He wasn't dead, but he was unconscious.  
  
"No, why? What have you done!?"  
  
Melissa and Tails held her back as Bowen, with anatomical precision, broke Sonics' arm in two places. "Easy girl, it'll heal soon enough." Melissa whispered as Amy struggled.  
  
"Done? Why, I have done no more what I always craved."  
  
He pulled his lab coat apart and lowered the neck of his top until a glint of green revealed his secret. He'd performed the procedure on himself. minus the programming. He was as powerful as they, and crazier than ever.  
  
For a second the world span, a flash of bright light lit the room. When they opened their eyes once more, Bowen and Sonic were gone. 


	10. Chapter 09

ADAPTION chapter nine  
  
Amy opened her mind to the whole world, searching for the man she loved and the bastard trying to take him from her, spreading her awareness out over every zone on the planet, feeling for them, wanting them. Within seconds she had located them on the fringes of her psychic awareness, thousands of miles away.  
  
She vanished, taking Tails and Melissa with her.  
  
The teleportation this time, fueled by her anger and urgency, was ferocious, the spark flashed reds, yellows and white, singeing and melting the ground where she and the others had been standing just seconds before.  
  
The actual traveling felt like it was taking hours, their bodies were whipped by winds, induced by the mind trying to cope with this alien way of traveling.  
  
Within maybe a second, they were standing in a desolate landscape, a place neither recognized. Then Amy realized, they'd followed Bowen into a new zone, one of the forbidden realms, a realm of pure thought and no reason. This landscape was a creation of Bowen's mind, and they were stuck on his terms.  
  
"Shit..."  
  
Tails and Melissa had come to the same conclusion, and were looking around a little panicky. They, all three of them, were his physical match, if not his betters, but in this land controlled by him, they had no idea of the outcome of this battle.  
  
Amy cast her mind out once more. She could feel Bowen in everything around them, the rocks, the half dead bushes and trees, but it was Sonic she was looking for.  
  
Sonic awoke groggily, and tried to move. In a second he really wished he hadn't, his arm took him into a world of agony at the simplest movement. Clenching his teeth he tried to sit and get a look at where Bowen had taken him.  
  
He was bound, but by what he couldn't tell, it appeared to be simply the floor itself, all he could manage to raise was his head. He looked around, assessing the situation. He was indeed held down by the ground, his hands, up to the wrist, and feet up to the ankle, were sunk tightly into the floor, keeping him immobile, tendrils of grass wrapped around his limbs as extra security.  
  
He dropped his head back to the ground, trying to blank the pain coming from his broken and twisted arm, deciding he would give vibrating his way out of the bonds a try. A writhing sound to his right made him glance over before he could move anything.  
  
The earth bulged and lifted as if something were trying to escape, and then it slowly formed into a vaguely humanoid shape. A hand pushed it aside near the face, and the spotlessly mad form of Bowen clambered out and crouched, the earth slowly rolling back into itself behind him.  
  
"Hello Sonic."  
  
Sonic nearly growled at him and attempted to escape. It was a futile effort, the pain in his arm made him cry out, nearly losing consciousness, with a wave of black washing over him, he quieted and settled for glaring at the man he loathed, he didn't even have the strength to throw abuse at the man.  
  
"There then, isn't that much more comfortable?" he said in a patronizing voice, "Just lie back and enjoy the show, while you can."  
  
Bowen giggled slightly and stood up, he threw off his lab coat a little melodramatically then stepping over his prone captive he stood awaiting Amy's arrival. Sonic gave him a loath fueled glare, not noticing the strands of grass slowly growing their way over him.  
  
Knuckles watched anxiously as Tekno worked her 'magic' on the door to Porker's cell. "Is it working?" he asked quietly.  
  
Tekno smiled, "Yeah, It'll be open in just a moment."  
  
As she predicted, the lock of the door shot open with a surprisingly loud whooshing sound. Rouge clicked her tongue, checking no one had been alerted by the sound, then, as she shook her head no, Tekno removed her computer and Knuckles pulled the door slowly open.  
  
They were shocked into speechlessness when they found Porker.  
  
He had pressed himself as far as he could into the far corner of the room, clutching his jacket so tightly the buttons had torn the skin of his fingers. He was muttering to himself under his breath, his eyes clenched tightly shut.  
  
"Oh Porker, what did he do to you?" Tekno crouched beside him, putting a gentle hand on his arm.  
  
Porker squealed and jumped as she touched him, his eyes flashing open. For a moment he tried to back further away, his eyes roaming the room wildly, then he recognized everyone and calmed down a fraction.  
  
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do it! He. They made me do it!"  
  
He stared straight at Tekno as he made this statement, as if she were accusing him, but she shook her head, and quite impulsively wrapped her arms around her friend, trying to calm him down.  
  
As Knuckles and Rouge watched, worried looks on their faces, Porker quietly burst into tears as Tekno held him, slowly rocking to and fro. "I'm so sorry." He sobbed once more before lapsing into complete silence.  
  
"I hope Sonic kills that bastard." Rouge muttered so quietly only Knuckles caught her words.  
  
Despite himself, he nodded agreement.  
  
"I've found him," Amy silently informed the others, passing on to them his exact location, "Bowen can't be to far from him, he's a glory seeker, and a crazy one at that, he'll be using Sonic as bait."  
  
"He feels. in a bad way Amy." Tails gave her an imploring look.  
  
She nodded, "Don't worry about him, just get him to safety, leave Bowen to me, in this place, I'm the only one who can beat him."  
  
Tails and Melissa nodded, they knew what they would be facing in this land of Bowen's creation, and Amy's new found abilities would be the only weapon against him.  
  
Vanishing as one, they all appeared together, no more than twenty or thirty feet from where Bowen was waiting for them.  
  
"Ah, my guests! You have arrived! And just in time too, poor, dear, Sonic here isn't feeling too well" Bowen grinned one of his maniacal grins and indicated his captive.  
  
Sonic was almost completely covered in tight strands of thick, strong, rope like grass, he struggled, but without conviction as his arm pained him and the bonds began to cut off his air supply. His gaze flickered towards his team mates, desperation showing plainly in his bright green eyes.  
  
Amy held Tails back with a simple gesture, and they both stood there, fists clenched and teeth grinding, green and white energy flickering over their bodies.  
  
"Bowen, I'm going to kill you."  
  
Amy said it simply, but with all the conviction of a lover, Bowen raised his eye brows at her.  
  
Before they knew what was happening, Bowen had disappeared and Amy with him. Melissa and Tails rushed forward with simultaneous cries of anguish and fought to release Sonic from his living bonds.  
  
"Don't worry Sonic, we'll have you out in a moment!" Tails said urgently as he fought with the writhing rope like grass. Sonic stilled and looked over Tails shoulder for a second, then began to struggle once more, his eyes trying to tell Tails something. Glancing at Sonics eye's, Tails turned just in time to be met by Melissa's fist.  
  
Amy grabbed at thin air, where a millisecond before Bowen had been, snarled and looked around, with her mind as well as her eyes.  
  
It was useless, her eyes saw nothing, and her mind saw him everywhere, he was nowhere and everywhere at the same time, and it was getting on her nerves.  
  
She was going to have to merge with the world as he had, and fight him from within, but this wasn't an optimistic prospect, she could get stuck in his mind, or worse, come back, but with a mind like his.  
  
She screamed her wrath and sent her mind out, just as the landscape around her writhed and wound itself around her entire body. She found a way in, and took it.  
  
"Melissa! What are you doing?!"  
  
Tails jumped up from the ground where he had landed, a betrayed look on his face. "Nothing young one, I'm just doing as I've been told from the outset."  
  
Melissa smirked and jumped at Tails, bringing them both crashing to the ground. Tails would not give in though, and he rolled from under her, clambering to his feet then shooting into the air. Melissa snarled and followed, making a grab for his ankle, but he danced out of the way.  
  
They both began to glow green and white, then quite suddenly Melissa let fly at Tails, bolts of emerald energy screaming in his direction. Not quite believing what was happening, he simply sent up an impromptu shield, letting the bolts hit it, spreading waves of power outward.  
  
"Why are you doing this?" he shouted at her, keeping the shield up as she sent another volley at him.  
  
"Because I want to, you little idiot! Now get out from behind that shield and let me kill you!"  
  
She charged at him again, trying to make him drop the shield and react to her attacks, but he was having none of it, he simply dodged her every physical attack and let the shield take care of the rest. Tails still couldn't believe what she was doing, he was still no more than a child, and this betrayal hurt.  
  
"Oh for goodness sake!" she finally screamed while throwing volley after volley at his shield, "Can't you tell?! Bowen is my lover! It has been a ploy all along! We simply want the three of you dead!"  
  
Tails was shocked, and just for a second he did nothing, then, "But, you're part of the freedom group..."  
  
"Was part, WAS"  
  
She charged him again, and this time Tails reacted. He was pissed off as only a twelve year old could be, and he was hurting. This woman had pretended to be their friend, when all she really wanted to do was catch and kill them all.  
  
Tails whole body glowed green, and they clashed, fighting viciously in a midair battle neither would forget.  
  
Far below them, Sonic watched in anguished suspense, he had no idea what was going on, why had Melissa attacked Tails? He had no time to worry about that now though, he could barely breathe.  
  
He concentrated on trying to move his nose and mouth out of the grip of the grass strands, but it wasn't working too well.  
  
If Amy or Tails didn't hurry up, there'd be no one to rescue.  
  
Amy trod carefully in a mind that was not her own.  
  
She was fully aware that in the real world her body, as well as Sonic's was being suffocated by the writhing earth controlled by Bowen, but she couldn't think about that, she had a bastard to kill from the inside.  
  
Amy hadn't noticed, but her whole being now consisted of one single thought, 'Kill Bowen'. This thought was consuming her, and even if she survived, she would never be satisfied.  
  
The deeper into this thought she delved, the less chance there was of her safe return. Amy marched up to and opened the mental equivalent of a door. 


	11. Chapter 10

ADAPTION chapter ten  
  
"Welcome to my world."  
  
Amy looked up into the steady gaze of Doctor Bowen. His inner self was massive, muscular and dressed in an almost gaudy fashion, with an oriental twist.  
  
This may be his world she was in, but Amy new she was the more powerful of the two, and despite his intricate knowledge of his mind, she would be able to kill him, with little more than a thought. Though in here, a thought was an action.  
  
She grew in size, to match Bowen's and they stood, looking each other squarely in the eyes.  
  
Impulsively, Bowen giggled, and clapped his hands together in a childish manner.  
  
"It's so good to have you here at last!" He smiled, almost warmly, and waved his arms in an expansive gesture, showing her the world she had entered.  
  
The sky above them was a deep voluminous green, twinkling here and there with stars she soon noticed were actually eyes, they were standing in the center of a field of sweet corn, each pod ripe and ready for the plucking. Without thinking Amy pulled one from the stem and removed the leaves, instead of corn she found teeth, perfectly formed, tiny children's milk teeth. Repulsed, and forgetting for a moment she was inside a mind, she dropped the cob.  
  
She blinked and looked up again, and she was no longer in the field under the green sky, she was in a large white room, and Bowen was sat at a table watching her.  
  
He suddenly looked strange, his fur was red rather than brown, and he had little horns protruding from his ample forehead.  
  
She folded her arms at him and frowned.  
  
He flicked a tail that was not his own, long, thin and barbed at the end.  
  
"Are you going to continue this game Bowen?"  
  
He stood and gave her a rather regal look, "Oh, call me Matthias, please. And yes, I am, as you see, it's rather amusing seeing you run around, trying to find a way to kill me in time to save your little honey bug." He smirked, and the blank white walls melted away leaving them both standing in the center of a large cage with iron bars. Outside the cage, thousands of people sat in row upon row in a circle around them, watching silently.  
  
Looking around Amy was surprised to find Bowen had stepped out of the cage, leaving her alone.  
  
She turned suddenly as something snaked across her foot.  
  
Tails and Melissa fought as if the very world depended on the outcome, and to Tails it did. Sonic was depending on him as never before, he had to stop Melissa and get to Sonic as soon as possible. But it was proving to be a lot harder than he would have thought.  
  
Both fighters were torn and bleeding in several areas, their clothes ripped to shreds.  
  
Tails glanced down at Sonic, quickly checking he was still alive and nearly paid for his trouble, Melissa, by now a screaming mass of fur, cloth and blood, charged him, talons and energy at the ready.  
  
Tails was ready, he snarled and waited for her, let her within his range, allowing her to think she had him, and then he attacked.  
  
Melissa went down with little more than a feminine grunt.  
  
Even before she hit the ground Tails was once again at Sonic's side, ripping and tearing at the grass binding his oldest friend and mentor.  
  
Sonic emerged gasping and gagging for breath, coughing and trying to work his way free of the tightening binds holding him down.  
  
"Hold still sonic! I've got it now."  
  
Tails, one finger glowing a bright, almost white, green, slashed through the rest of the bindings, until Sonic could finally sit up, still coughing for breath.  
  
"Sonic! You're ok!" And Tails threw his arms around him. Gratefully, Sonic, taking care not to move his damaged arm, returned the embrace.  
  
"Thanks little buddy."  
  
Amy found herself trapped.  
  
She was no longer in the cage, and the animal, born of Bowen's twisted mind, was gone, but she was still stuck, this time in a cage of glass that was too small.  
  
The beast had been easy to over come, it was simply his father, twisted and malformed and no longer resembling anything that had ever been alive.  
  
She had fought it with everything, until it had finally evaporated with a childlike cry.  
  
Then the room had melted away again and left her in an ever shrinking glass case with a strange pattern sand blown onto it.  
  
Repeating to herself that this was all in her mind or his at any rate, she closed her eyes and attempted to take control. The glass case slowly evaporated and she stood, opened her eyes. She was in the corn field again, but this time all the cobs were over ripe and beginning to turn, the eyes in the sky were no longer sparkling.  
  
"It's very dangerous trying to outwit me in my own realm, little girl"  
  
Amy turned, and suddenly she was.  
  
She was no more than ten years old, she was brown furred, she was carrying her original crossbow on her back and she didn't know where she was.  
  
"Now darling, are you scared?"  
  
She looked up at the strange man standing a few feet away, he looked ok, not like her momma had told her bad men should look at all. She smiled triumphantly.  
  
"I'm not scared, I'm never scared" She folded her arms defiantly, "I'm going to be a freedom fighter one day, and fight at Sonic's side, so I'm not scared."  
  
Bowen stood up straight and smirked.  
  
"So, you've liked him that long, eh? I wonder how your younger self would have taken the thought of dieing for him."  
  
The young Amy was looking around the corn field interestedly.  
  
"You are of no use to me like this," the field of corn melted away leaving a grown Amy bound to a bed via long slim white chains manacled to her wrists, and Bowen standing over her in red suit with black cane.  
  
"Much better"  
  
The room was large, but not too much so, with deep blue walls and gold drapes, no windows but an expansive doorway.  
  
Amy was sitting docile on the bed, wearing no more than an almost see- through gown, that in the real world she would never have worn.  
  
He left her there and returned to the real world.  
  
"Where's Amy?"  
  
Sonic looked a little panicked again as Tails bound Melissa in the rope grass he had been bound in. She was still unconscious, and probably would be for a long while yet.  
  
"Last I saw she was off attacking Bowen."  
  
"Oh God, he's gonna kill her, and there's nothing we can do about it!"  
  
Tails looked shocked, "What? What are you on about? She's stronger than him, how can she loose?"  
  
Sonic looked distraught, "But she isn't, he told me, he bragged about it! He's been a telepath all along, merging with the master emerald like that just made him stronger. They're equals, but he's had more practice."  
  
Tails reacted quickly, "We have to find her, overpower Bowen's physical form maybe?" Sonic nodded "We should give it a try at least."  
  
When they found Amy it was quite by accident, if Sonic hadn't tripped over what appeared to be a simple mound in the earth Amy would have started suffocating and eventually died. As it was, he cursed and yelled in pain as he landed on his bad arm, causing it more damage. He turned to viciously kick the offending bit of ground and noticed its odd shape. It looked like a hand.  
  
"Tails! I think I've found her!"  
  
Sonic knelt and began to frantically dig with the hand of his good arm; Tails joined him a second later. After only a few minutes, Amy was dug up, and Sonic was cradling her head and shoulders in his good arm. She looked like she was sleeping.  
  
Tails looked on with tears in his eyes as Sonic gently kissed her on the forehead, hugging her tightly to him.  
  
After all attempts, they eventually gave up trying to wake her, and Tails turned his attention to Melissa and Bowen. There was absolutely no sign of either of them.  
  
Wondering what had happened to them, Tails held onto his two friends, and teleported back to the safe house, to safety and, hopefully, a reawakening for Amy.  
  
A few minutes after they had gone, Bowen slowly formed out of the ground that was now completely his, and smiled. Beside him Melissa rose from the earth, bindings falling away. She climbed to her feet and smiled up at her love, then watched as he created his world around them. 


	12. Epilogue

ADAPTION epilogue  
  
Amy awoke three days later to find Sonic asleep with his head on the side of her bed.  
  
They were in a room she didn't recognize, a few of her things were dotted about, it almost looked homey.  
  
She looked fondly at Sonic and noticed his arm was in a cast, slowly her memory came back to her, and she began to wonder what Sonic was doing sleeping like this with his head on her bed, something he hadn't done for at least two years now.  
  
She lay looking at the ceiling, wondering what had happened, and where they were. The last thing she remembered clearly was sitting chained to a bed in a large blue room, but that had been in his head.She vaguely remembered the room beginning to fade into a bright light, then that going away and something soft touching her forehead.  
  
She started to sit up, and disturbed Sonic.  
  
"Huh.? Wassat.?" He looked bleary eyed at her a moment as she sat there looking down at him, then he jumped up, "Amy!"  
  
She smiled, "Hey sleepy head"  
  
"Sleepy head? ME? You're the ones been asleep for three days!" He hesitated just a moment, then threw his arms round her.  
  
"We thought we'd lost you Amy."  
  
She returned his embrace, savoring the moment, as if it would stop any second and never return.  
  
Within a few days, things were back to normal, or as normal as they could be in this new safe house, deep under ground.  
  
Porker had taken a leave of absence telling no-one where he had gone, taking Tekno with him for protection and company, so Knuckles and Rouge related the story of what had happened after Sonic, Amy and Tails had disappeared.  
  
Porker had been in a very bad way, so they had taken him somewhere comfortable, then they had left him with Tekno, his best friend.  
  
Searching all over, they had found no trace of the remaining freedom fighters, so they had turned to releasing any captives still aware of whom they were. There had been many happy reunions over the past few days, but also heart breaking sorrow as either drones or bodies were found.  
  
It had been very late at night when Tails reappeared in the old safe house, clutching the unconscious forms of his two friends.  
  
Within a day Sonic had awoken, yelling from nightmares and claustrophobia. He had instantly insisted on seeing Amy and Tails both.  
  
Tails had suffered no more than a few cuts and bruises, a patch or two of singed fur, all of which his new healing ability cleared up within a few hours.  
  
But Amy, they had had no idea what was wrong with her, physically she was fine, if a little asphyxiated. Therefore, before leaving, Tekno had declared it may be something to do with her newfound telepathy and they should simply keep a watch over her.  
  
Sonic had spent every hour with her since, with frequent visits from Tails, less so from Rouge and Knuckles who had busied themselves with setting up the new safe house.  
  
Since Bowen had disappeared without trace, as had his lover, Melissa, they agreed that they were still alive, living in this new realm and very much a threat. This was the reason for changing safe houses, as Bowen undoubtedly knew the exact location of the old one.  
  
The only problem left to them now was what to do with those drones left in his lab, but that problem was soon solved when Tekno and Porker hacked into the rest his files from their secret location and started working on ways to bring them all back, an important job that Porker declared helped him relax and begin to recover.  
  
So life pretty much carried on as normal as it could, with Amy and Tails getting used to their new abilities, everyone else getting used to them in turn, and Sonic and Amy slowly getting used to each other.  
  
The only problem now was waiting for Bowen's return. 


End file.
